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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2017
Beach advisories could rise after stricter testing
change was made in the inter-
est of public health.
EPA tightens
water quality
standards
Too cold
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Beachgoers on the North
Coast could possibly see an
increase in the number of
beach advisories issued this
summer.
Each summer, selected
beaches are monitored for
bacteria by the Oregon Beach
Monitoring Program. But an
increase in bacteria readings
on the beach won’t necessar-
ily be the cause for the rise in
advisories. Rather, a change in
national standards may lead to
more local alerts.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency recently
tightened the marine recre-
ational water quality standard
used to determine if bacte-
ria levels are unsafe for water
contact, according to the Ore-
gon Health Authority.
Since the Oregon Beach
Monitoring Program started
in 2004, standards for measur-
ing bacteria, known as BAV
— beach action value — has
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
The Cannon Beach Public Works Department posted signs to notify beachgoers of a
sewage spill in July 2015. The city was fined $1,800 as a result.
been 158 mpn, or most prob-
able number, a testing method
used to estimate the number of
colony forming units of bacte-
ria in water samples.
Starting this summer, that
value will drop significantly to
70 mpn, Oregon Public Health
Division Program Coordinator
Tara Chetock said.
Chetock said the beach
monitoring program lowered
the value after EPA studies
showed stricter standards can
help reduce illness as a result
of accidental ingestion of bac-
teria contaminated water.
“It’s important to note that
when the EPA is looking at
water quality standards, they
are also looking at places like
Miami and California where
the water is warmer and more
people are in the water all
time,” Chetock said. “The
standard was established con-
sidering all beaches.”
In general, Chetock said,
Oregon beaches are not where
people are getting sick, but the
Most periods of the year,
water on the North Coast is
usually too cold for swimmers.
According to Surfrider
Foundation, an environmental
nonprofit that tracks water bac-
teria, there have been no recent
self-reported illnesses on the
North Coast.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity’s Beach Monitoring Pro-
gram is inviting public com-
ment through May 8 on a list of
beaches it is proposing to mon-
itor this summer, which cur-
rently lists Seaside, Tolovana
and Cannon Beach as sugges-
tions. The three beaches have
been tested multiple times and
rank highly on the list due to
the large number of users in the
summer, Chetock said.
Sources of contamination to
surface waters include waste-
water treatment plants, on-site
septic systems, domestic and
wild animal manure, and storm
runoff, according to the EPA.
In July 2015, a sewage leak
led to a high spike in bacteria
readings in the Ecola Creek
Watershed. In general, Can-
non Beach has a history of
high bacteria test results, espe-
cially after rain washes water-
ways out, said Ryan Cruse,
field coordinator for Surfrider’s
Blue Water Task Force.
Generally clean
While Surfrider cannot
issue advisories like the beach
management program, Cruse
said based on their data Can-
non Beach has maintained
generally clean readings since
2015.
With the change in EPA reg-
ulations however, Cruse said
he could see the number of
advisories increasing as well as
the amount of testing required.
“If the OBMP is ending up
with more advisories, they will
have to be doing a lot more
testing than in the past because
they will need to go back and
test as soon as they can after an
advisory to evaluate whether or
not it needs to be kept,” Cruse
said.
He also noted that Surfrider
is concerned with national level
budget cuts within the EPA,
and what affect that will have
on research and public health.
“If funding goes away,
there will be a lot less informa-
tion out there to address these
issues,” Cruse said.
Judge orders Port to pay for depositions Washington state
Notes withheld
from executive
sessions on inn
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Circuit Court Judge Dawn
McIntosh has ordered the Port
of Astoria to cover the cost of
additional depositions of its
staff by Param Hotel Corp.,
which is suing the agency over
operation of the Astoria River-
walk Inn.
The Port was found to have
withheld until recently the
notes from executive sessions
in which the Riverwalk Inn was
discussed in September 2014
and July and August 2015.
Param’s lawyer, Colin
Hunter, had sought to win the
case with a motion for dis-
covery sanctions, claim-
ing the delay in the materi-
als was highly prejudicial and
had irreversibly affected his
prosecution.
The Port’s attorney, Luke
Reese, claims the delays were
unintentional
“confusion
between the Port and its attor-
ney as to what had been pro-
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Riverwalk Inn is the subject of a legal dispute.
duced prior to depositions,
which was immediately rem-
edied after the confusion was
identified and well before the
close of discovery.”
McIntosh ordered the Port
to provide and pay for the addi-
tional deposition of staff in
advance of trial set to start later
this month, but held off on fur-
ther judgment until then.
Param filed suit against
the Port in late 2015 after the
agency chose Astoria Hospi-
tality Ventures, owned by Port
Commissioner Stephen Ful-
ton’s brother-in-law William
Orr, to take over operation
of the lodging from heavily
indebted former operator Brad
Smithart. In his suit, Hunter
claimed the Port had shown
bias toward the connected
Hospitality Ventures, and had
wrongfully voided a contract
Param had to take over from
Smithart in exchange for pay-
ing off his debts.
Orr and his partner Ches-
ter Trabucco, who still oper-
ate the hotel and are negotiat-
ing with the Port to lease the
adjacent Chinook Building,
were removed from the case
last year. The duo’s lobbying
of the Port Commission was
deemed allowable by Circuit
Court Judge Philip Nelson.
Part of Nelson’s argument
was the lack of any evidence
indicating Fulton had “partic-
ipated as a public official in
any discussion or debate about
the operation or lease of the
hotel property” after a June
2015 meeting. But the with-
held executive session notes
indicated Fulton was pres-
ent for discussions about the
hotel.
“Though it is difficult to
assess to what extent, I do
believe (Param) suffered prej-
udice as a result of the Port’s
failure to disclose these docu-
ments,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh, who took over
mid-case after Nelson retired,
said she was unsure whether
the materials would have
swayed his decision to dis-
miss Orr and Trabucco, but
that their absence had affected
Param’s analysis of whether
to appeal the dismissal and its
decision to settle with the pair.
Railroad considers options for old caboose
By AARON WEST
The Bulletin
BEND — Moving thou-
sands of pounds of cargo isn’t
typically an issue for the trains
that use the City of Prineville
Railway, but what about when
the cargo is the train itself?
That’s the question the
city-owned railroad is trying
to answer. Railway Director
Matt Wiederholt said railway
staff members are consider-
ing their options for moving
a 30-ton caboose to the Bow-
man Museum in downtown
Prineville. The trip between
the railway and the museum is
less than a mile — practically
nothing compared to the long
trips the 70-year-old railway
car used to make in its heyday.
But since the city’s orange
caboose will have to be taken
off the storage tracks where it
currently sits and transported
on the highway to make it
there, the journey seems a lit-
tle bit longer than it actually is.
“We’re just trying to figure
out how to get it down there,”
Wiederholt said. “Hopefully
we’ll have it done in the next
couple months or so. It’s a little
challenging, but it’s doable.”
The caboose, which Wie-
derholt said the Prineville
Railway bought in the 1970s,
has seen a lot of use over the
years, but it’s been out of work
for nearly a decade.
Originally used for hauling
and housing railroad employ-
ees, the caboose is outfit-
ted with a generator, a stove,
a desk and bunk beds for the
crew members, conductors and
brakemen who used to have
to travel with a train. When
federal safety laws that had
required the use of cabooses
and large railroad crews were
relaxed in the 1980s, Wie-
derholt said, Prineville’s
caboose was moved over to
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the Prineville Freight Junction
— via tracks, not the highway
— to be used as office space.
After that it was used to give
kids rides, but it was retired in
the mid-2000s.
Rather than let the caboose
sit on storage tracks at the rail-
way, where Wiederholt said it
would slowly deteriorate, the
decision was made to donate it
to the city museum. The 100-
year anniversary of the rail-
way is coming up in 2018, and
Wiederholt said the caboose
would make a great histor-
ical exhibit at the Bowman
Museum.
“It’s worth more histori-
cally at the museum than it
would be if we scrapped it or
sold it to someone who would
use it as a hunting cabin,” he
said.
Which brings the Prineville
Railway staff back to the ques-
tion at hand: How should they
transport the caboose?
The issue isn’t actually the
freight car’s weight, but its
height. For a train car, 60,000
pounds is “fairly light,” Wie-
derholt said, but at 13 feet,
8 inches tall, the caboose’s
height would exceed 14 feet
— the maximum height
allowed on Oregon roads —
when it’s loaded onto the back
of a truck.
“The height is giving us
some challenges,” he said.
Probably what’s going to
happen, Wiederholt specu-
lated, is that the railway will
use a crane it has to lift the
caboose so its wheels can be
removed and it can be loaded
on the back of a lowboy trailer.
Then the trip to the museum
can be made without smashing
into the top of any bridges or
power lines.
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urges sunscreen bill
By ALEXIS MYERS
Associated Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Washington state lawmakers
are pushing forward with a
proposal that allows students
to use sunscreen at school
without a note from a doc-
tor and parent, a rule that six
other states also are consid-
ering to help protect children
from developing skin cancer.
The law is in place for
Washington students from
kindergarten to 12th grades
because the Food and Drug
Administration lists sun-
screen as a drug product.
School employees also are
banned from applying it on
a student.
Senate Bill 5404 would
exempt sunblock from being
classified as a medication
so children could use it on
campus, at school-spon-
sored events or during field
trips. The state House unan-
imously passed the measure
last week, and it now heads
back to the Senate for agree-
ment on changes that were
made.
Republican state Sen.
Ann Rivers of La Center,
sponsor of the legislation,
said her colleagues and con-
stituents shared stories of
some children coming back
from field trips “burnt like a
French fry.”
“Every now and then,
we come across a bill where
we end up asking ourselves,
‘Really, do we really need a
bill for this?’ It’s just kind of
a no-brainer,” Rivers said.
When asked about the
legislation, Mona Johnson,
director of student support
for the Office of Superinten-
dent of Public Instruction,
said sunscreen had not been
a significant issue until Riv-
er’s bill emerged.
“This issue was a surprise
to us,” Johnson said. “It’s not
something we’ve had lots of
people be concerned about
or lots of educators be con-
cerned about it.”
She said the superinten-
dent’s office supports the
legislation as long as school
administrators and nurses
do, too.
At least four states have
laws requiring schools to
allow students to use sun-
screen, according to the
National Conference of State
Legislatures. They are Cali-
fornia, New York, Utah and
Oregon.
Alabama, Arizona, Geor-
gia, Louisiana, Massachu-
setts and Rhode Island are
considering similar legis-
lation. A bill introduced in
Congress last year to allow
sunscreen in schools didn’t
go anywhere, the NCSL
said.
Betsy Janes of the Amer-
ican Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network said some
states do not have sun pro-
tection laws because it might
not be a problem there or it
hasn’t become one yet.
But there’s a common
misconception that people
are less likely to get skin
cancer in cloudier states,
such as Washington, Janes
said. Some of the highest
rates of melanoma — the
deadliest form of skin can-
cer — occur in the cloudiest
states, including Washington
and Oregon, according to the
Center for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Skin cancer is progres-
sive and starts when a person
is young and is more at risk
of sun exposure, Janes said.
Thank You
from the
Westerholm Family
It’s going on 2 months now since my dad passed away in
February. The family, mom especially, has been absolutely
overwhelmed by all the love, support, and generosity that
everyone has shown. From fl owers,
cards, and fi nancial support to hugs,
food, and a simple text to say how
much dad will be missed.
The family wanted to announce that
we will be having a celebration of life
at the Knappa High School commons
on June 17th from 11-2. Please bring
your memories and photographs to
share. The stories and pictures that
have been given here and during
visits have truly been cherished.
Thank you all so much.
Connie Westerholm,
Gerritt and Family,
Jason and Family